So I’ve Finished Metal Gear Solid 4 getting the Big Boss Medal (which involves beating the game under a set time limit without kills/deaths/alerts/healing items) and most of the game’s faults, its long and overconvoluted, overclimactic story fades away without the cut scenes. Instead of a climactic fifth act with a couple battles in between pockets full of plot, the fourth act acts as the most dramatic moment of the story, with three boss battles culminating in a giant mecha battle between an old, obsolete box of bolts and a fresh, new giant robot (!). It refers to a much faster paced plot than the one that actually exists, but this might not be a bad thing for the game’s thematic thrust.

I have had a very good reason for not posting any content lately: I just got a PS3 + MGS4, and I can’t peel myself away from the game. It’ll take a little work to justify all my tense thumbs and lost writings, because the actual game as a final product is not very good: every cut scene is nothing short of a filmic atrocity, with (and I’m being literal here) hours of exposition, and in between these explanations there is either (admittedly cool and ridiculous) fight scenes, or blunt character drama as interesting as a science geek falling for another science geek. Or a member of the world-saving squad worried about Snake’s ability to fight. The soldiers responds with a dismissive hand halting communication, the newly quiet regarding him in sympathy and awe.

(Again, I refer to the original Playstation game as Metal Gear Solid, its Playstation 2 sequel as Sons of Liberty, the remake of Metal Gear Solid as Twin Snakes, and the third entry as Snake Eater) The first part is here.

Ever wonder why people go to war? Why they separate themselves from society and subject themselves to its awful rigor? Rick Veitch explores the topic but obfuscates its implications under a weighty satire in Army @ Love. Perhaps the answer is better found in the ancient Dionysian rituals. Or maybe in virtual reality, where one can be anything at all.

Even someone with a gun in bloodlust murdering many people. Virtual Reality, and it’s inchoate cousin, video games, are inextricably linked to warfare through the separation of the self from a huge physical environment.

If war is a reality for a person, as it is for almsot any other country besides the U.S., this comparison could seem overly harsh and only from a protected environment (i.e. bourgeoise, I guess one could say). While it might be terrible to make the comparison elsewhere, here Kojima uses it in his postmodern meditation on what constitutes an experience, in a larger sense reality. I feel I can use the facile comparison somewhat easily, if you read the rest of this essay.

(I refer to the Playstation game as Metal Gear Solid, its sequel as Sons of Liberty, and its remake as Twin Snakes. This way, I don’t make my writing ugly with numerical taxonomy!)

Have you ever been in love before? Have you ever felt, with your entire being, that you want to devote yourself to someone, that the rest of your life should be spent with that someone? That they are your soul mate, and that you will never leave them?